Wounded cop returns home: 'You're the man, Del!'

In the hours after a bullet pierced Chicago police Officer Del Pearson's chest, tore into an artery and lodged near his spine, there were moments when his colleagues thought he would die.

By the time the father of two had arrived at the hospital March 19, he had lost a large amount of blood as his tactical team partners rushed him by car from the South Side neighborhood where he had been shot. He spent much of the night in surgery.

But Tuesday, little more than a week after the shooting, Pearson, 47, left Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in a wheelchair pushed by his wife, Christine, and brother-in-law Mark Reno. Clad in a black baseball cap and blue jacket with his left arm in a sling, Pearson was joined by officers who had gathered at the hospital to celebrate his release.

"You're the man, Del!" one officer shouted after all saluted Pearson while he was escorted to Reno's car.

Pearson, a South Chicago District officer, and his team had apparently tried to stop a group for curfew violations March 19 when one of the youths took off running. Pearson gave chase through a front yard in the 8400 block of South Kingston Avenue, but the individual turned and fired shots, police said. Pearson returned fire but was struck by one bullet in his upper chest, just above his bulletproof vest. Another bullet lodged in the vest.

When his team members noticed how heavily Pearson was bleeding, Sgt. Chris Kapa and Officer Kirsten Lund decided they couldn't wait for an ambulance and drove him in a squad car to Advocate Trinity Hospital. He was moved later to Advocate Christ Medical Center, which has a trauma center.

During a news conference Tuesday, Dr. J. Kayle Lee, a trauma surgeon at Christ, said that when Pearson arrived, he was quickly taken to the operating room. He had lost close to three-fourths of his blood, and it was clear he was bleeding to death, she said.

The bullet had hit a major artery beneath the collarbone that carries blood from the heart to the arm. It then bored through Pearson's body until it came to rest in his neck, chipping his spine.

The doctors immediately inserted a breathing tube, began transfusions and started surgery to repair the leaking blood vessel.

"He was very lucky," Lee said. "(The bullet) went very close to his spinal cord in his neck."

When police arrived at the hospital last week, Superintendent Garry McCarthy told reporters Tuesday that he didn't think Pearson would make it and credited his survival in part to the quick thinking of his colleagues.

Although police are trained to wait for an ambulance, Kapa said he didn't know why he took the initiative to drive Pearson to Advocate Trinity Hospital.

"I still can't answer why I decided to do it. I just knew he was in bad shape. I wasn't going to let my friend and my co-worker lay there and possibly bleed to death while we stood around and waited," Kapa said. "I saw the massive amounts of blood and said, 'Let's go.'"

"If you were to tell me last Monday that we'd be standing here making this announcement, I would've said you were out of your mind," McCarthy said as Pearson left the hospital with his family. "This is just a great day. I can't believe it."

Paris Sadler, 20, was charged with attempted murder of a peace officer and aggravated battery with a firearm. He could face life in prison if he is convicted of the more serious offense.

Prosecutors said they used the other bullet that lodged in Pearson's vest to connect the crime to a .38-caliber revolver later found hidden in a hole in a wall behind a bathtub in Sadler's home.

Doctors expect that Pearson will undergo another operation to remove the bullet that struck him in the chest. He could return to work in a few months, they said.

Pearson's wife texted McCarthy on Tuesday to let him know how excited she was, comparing her husband's homecoming to their first date.

The department also honored Pearson with a commendation Tuesday for his role in solving a string of armed robberies last year.

Several bright balloons were tied to the railing Tuesday afternoon in front of the family's house in Chicago's Mount Greenwood neighborhood. About a dozen officers gathered outside, talking and laughing.

Christine Pearson said her husband, whose father was a Chicago police officer, is just happy to be back at home with his teenage son and daughter. One of the first things he asked for when he returned was a Diet Pepsi.

"It's been a little bit of a trying week," she said as she stood beside their son. "But he's home, he's alive, he's walking, he's talking."

A 19-year-old Portsmouth woman is facing multiple charges following a police pursuit that ended in Newport News over the weekend and involved two children reported missing in Chesapeake, an official said.